Canada 2002: KICKING HORSE
My trip started with a commuter run
from Calgary, Alberta on a Friday night in a Greyhound coach to Golden, British Columbia.
My skiing companion was to join me late Saturday night so I decided to spend my Saturday
relaxing after the 24 hours of travelling from Sydney, Australia on the previous day.
First surprise about Golden was that it is a town stretched along the Trans Canadian highway for many a kilometre. The town never appeared to go more than a couple of blocks from the main road but would take you an hour to walk from the western end of town to the eastern.
<
Looking up to Blue Heaven. The highest point in the resort (not yet serviced by a
lift). After a pleasant stroll you can pick up a few new turns or head out of bounds. |
Our motel was a good 30
minute walk from the centre of town. That’s where the supermarket, liquor store,
banks(2) and taxi were to be found. Golden is for people with their own transport not
drop-in skiers and boarders like ourselves. There was a taxi/shuttle servicing the
mountain resort of Kicking Horse. This service ran once in the morning at around 8:00 am
and again at 4:30pm to bring you off the mountain. Upon request the taxi/shuttle bus would
meet you at 12:30pm to bring you off the mountain. Considering the distance you have to
travel from Golden the $7:00-$8:00 a day shuttle fare was worth it.
Golden Eagle Gondola > |
Kicking Horse (previously known as Whitetooth) has just been dramatically expanded by the addition of an 8 seater gondola that takes you to the summit. This is way beyond the top of the the other two lifts - a quad servicing beginner areas and an old double which (when running) gives you access to the black through green terrain of the original Whitetooth resort.
With over 4133 vertical feet (1,260m) to play with,
skiing/boarding from the top provides for some long runs and that's what you get every
time you ride the gondola.
< Gondola base - looking back up the mountain |
Whether it be lack of funds or simply structured planning, the gondola has the capacity to carry many more cabins than it currently does (600 people per hour). Mid-week this is just fine, unless it snows. We had a 20-30 minute lift line for the Gondola on the weekend and when it snowed on the Thursday, we had a 40 minute wait. There were no other options as you must return to the resort base every run no matter which lift you ride. We were quite lucky compared to those who arrived the week before us only to find the gondola was out of service all week.
So what was the skiing & boarding like? Quite
nice thank you. The week was generally cold, mostly starting below -20C but this
maintained good snow quality.
The highlight of the week was the
18cm of new snow that meet us on Thursday morning. The areas that the wind had not got to
were by far the best. An influx of locals meant that fresh turns were had to find in
bounds after lunch.
Bowl Over > |
< Fresh tracks out of the glades |
From the top of the gondola (where Canada’s highest
restaurant resides) you can go either left or right. There is a single blue groomed track
that winds its way back to the base. The remainder is black to double black off piste
skiing. Initially mostly open treeless bowls with some glade skiing off the ridge line
that the gondola follows. My initial impressions were touches of Fernie and Jackson Hole.
Steep gladed runs off the sides of the ridge like Fernie and open bowls criss-crossed by
the blue "home-trail" cat track of Jackson Hole. The vertical is in the range of
Jackson and Panorama but we didn’t find a good fall-line run that did justice to the
4000 foot vertical. We found that we keep changing pitches and direction every 1000
vertical feet (300m) or so.
I’ll certainly return to Kicking Horse but not without a car and probably not until more upgrading of the lift system is done. Unfortunately the resort is still a long, long way behind Fernie as far as development goes. No I’m not giving a big plug for Fernie - as you will see later in this article. Still, if you are touring around the area you should go check out this mountain before it becomes too commercial. Just take a car with you.